Zac Alley takes over the Gamecocks’ defense after serving as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at ULM in 2021.
Alley was the youngest defensive coordinator in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision, when he took over at ULM in 2021 at the age of 28. A member of 247Sports’ “30 Under 30” list, Alley joined the Warhawks after a winless season in 2020 and helped lead them to four wins and back into contention in the Sun Belt Conference.
He turned what was the 125th-ranked rushing defense in FBS in 2020 into the 69th-ranked rush defense in 2021 and saw the Warhawks improve in the national rankings in 11 of the 14 defensive categories from 2020 to 2021.
Prior to ULM, Alley was Bryan Harsin’s co-special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach at Boise State. In two seasons, he led the Broncos to a 17-4 record and a 13-game win streak in Mountain West Conference play. In 2020, FootballScoop.com named Alley one of its Special Teams Coordinators of the Year.
He previously worked for four years (2015-18) under Dabo Swinney as a graduate assistant at Clemson, his alma mater. Alley spent his entire postgraduate career on the defensive side of the football, where he worked primarily with the defensive tackles and linebackers. During his tenure, Clemson won two National Championships, four Atlantic Coast Conference titles and compiled a combined record of 55-4 (.932).
Alley also had a defensive coaching internship with the National Football League’s Carolina Panthers.
He started working as a student assistant in the Clemson Football Office as a freshman in 2011 and spent four years in that capacity while earning his bachelor’s degree in business management in December 2014. Alley completed his master’s in human resource development from Clemson in August 2017.
Alley graduated from Charlotte (N.C.) Country Day School, where he played linebacker and offensive line.
